 TWO
ON BUCKS
Double-Calling Bucks
EDITOR’S NOTE: What would you do if you discovered
where a trophy buck lived? Would you bet that this older-age-class
deer wouldn't die or get killed before the next hunting
season? And, if you didn't bag this big buck yourself,
would you willingly share him with a buddy? Many hunters
face these questions each season when they hunt big
bucks. Before you answer, consider some of the reasons
buddy hunting is better than hunting alone.
Each year, hundreds of magazine articles come out about
rattling and grunting deer. These two tactics can work
effectively by calling in bucks, but they pay the most
buck dividends when you know where to find the deer,
and you can see the  deer
moving toward you. For this reason, Texas and many other
western states make ideal locations for calling in deer.
For example, in the arid states of the West, you often
will see small patches of large cover in the middle
of wide-open areas. If you rattle or grunt to deer in
that cover, and a buck responds to your calling, more
than likely the deer will come out of the cover into
the open where you can get a good shot. However, even
in the West, the bucks generally won't come charging
in to your calls. They'll try to circle either to your
right or to your left to get downwind of the spot where
they hear the rattling and the grunting. A deer will
circle downwind so he can smell and possibly even determine
which bucks have gotten into a fight, their sizes and
their locations. A young buck does not want to arrive
at a fight just as it ends. If he does, whichever buck
has won the fight likely will attack this young buck
next. The young buck also wants to see the fight before
the combatants spot him.  Even
the dominant buck in the herd will circle downwind to
come to a fight rather than walk straight into the sound
– especially if that dominant buck has just finished
a fight.
Let's consider how the deer come in to rattling antlers
and how grunting affects eastern hunters. Although the
East probably has more deer than the West, the foliage
grows much thicker in the eastern half of the country.
If you rattle and grunt bucks in the East to you, you
never may see the deer. They may circle downwind of
you, using the thick cover as protection, pick up your
human odor and run in the opposite direction. To solve
this problem, two buddies of mine, Bill Amos and Joe
Thompson, have learned how to work together to double-call
bucks. "Bill will set up about 50 or 60 yards from
a bedding area," Thompson explains. "He'll
sneak into the bedding area and climb about 20 feet
in his tree stand as quietly as possible, trying not
to spook the bucks that have bedded-down in the thicket.
Once Bill gets in position, I'll move 50 to 100 yards
directly behind him, climb into my tree stand as quietly
as I can and face the opposite direction from the direction
Bill faces. Bill and I can see straight in front of
ourselves and off to our left and our right. We each
effectively can see about 180 degrees around us. However,
because we sit back-to-back, our combined vision  equals
360 degrees. If Bill starts rattling and grunting, and
a deer comes running straight toward him, he'll take
the shot. Or, if the deer tries to circle downwind of
Bill to his left or to his right, he'll take the shot.
However, if the buck circles wide around Bill, the deer
usually will appear to my left or to my right –
or almost directly in front of me. This way I can see
and take the bucks that Bill may never see or take."
After Amos and Thompson have called for 10 to 20 minutes
in the same region, they'll come down from their tree
stands and set up on another patch of thick cover where
they believe deer bed. Each time the two hunters change
locations, they'll switch jobs with Thompson becoming
the caller and Amos the back stander. Using this effective
double-calling tactic, these two hunting buddies have
bagged more bucks than any two hunters I know.
TOMORROW: HOLLOW HUNTING BUCKS
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